Following the challenges to AB 5, California’s controversial new independent contractor law, can be a difficult endeavor. Every day seems to bring a new development.
We have written before about the hasty passage of the statute, about a ballot initiative to escape the scope of the law by ride-share and delivery companies, and challenges by independent truckers, freelance journalists and photographers, and ride-share and delivery companies.
As we wrote here recently, organizations representing freelance journalists and photographers filed suit seeking to enjoin enforcement of California’s controversial independent contractor statute, AB 5, as to them.
While they are not the only ones challenging the new law, their suit is not off to a promising start.
With the start of the New Year, new state and local minimum wage increases have gone into effect for non-exempt employees across the country.
The chart below summarizes the new minimum wage rates that went into effect on January 1, 2020, unless otherwise indicated. (More will take effect July 1, 2020.)
On January 1, 2020, California’s new independent contractor statute, known as AB 5, went into effect. The law codifies the use of an “ABC” test to determine if an individual may be classified as an independent contractor.
The hastily passed and controversial statute has been challenged by a number of groups as being unconstitutional and/or preempted by federal law, including ride-share and delivery companies and freelance writers.
AB 5, California’s hastily passed and controversial independent contractor statute, which codifies the use of an “ABC test,” is set to go into effect on January 1, 2020.
Already, the California Trucking Association has filed suit challenging the statute.
As have freelance writers and photographers.
Now, it’s ride-share and delivery companies’ turn to file suit.
We recently wrote about a new California law set to go into effect on January 1, 2020 that would outlaw mandatory arbitration agreements with employees.
The new law, known as AB 51, would also prohibit arbitration agreements that would require individuals to take affirmative action to be excluded from arbitration, such as opting out. The law would also appear to extend to jury waivers and class action waivers. And it would include criminal penalties.
We have written previously about California’s new statute, referred to as AB 5, which codifies and expands the “ABC test” for independent contractors set forth in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court.
A California ballot initiative that would remove ride-share and delivery drivers from application of the “ABC test” is already underway.
And the California Trucking Association has filed suit challenging the statute.
As previously discussed, the federal Department of Labor has begun the process of increasing the minimum salary threshold for employees that fall under the “white collar” exemptions. Joining Alaska, New York, and California, Washington State and Maine have now approved higher salary thresholds for employees that fall under the exemptions; Colorado is expected to follow in early 2020.
Over the past six months, Congress has made two notable attempts to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (the “FLSA”). In July, U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) introduced The Modern Worker Empowerment Act (“MWEA”) with the stated aim of harmonizing the FLSA’s definition of employee with the common law. And last month, Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced the Treating Workers with Dignity Act of 2019 (“TWDA”), which would amend the FLSA to require certain compensated breaks.
On December 6, 2019, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that judicial approval is not required for offers of judgment to settle Fair Labor and Standards Act (“FLSA”) claims made pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68(a). This development may provide employers with a valuable strategic tool for use in FLSA cases, as least in the Second Circuit, allowing the parties to include terms in offers of judgment that the courts might disallow were court approval required.